BALANCE ISSUES?

Did you know that our sense of hearing is intimately connected to our sense of balance?  So when we realize that we keep turning up the volume on the TV or radio more frequently, it’s time to start working on balance! 

Although is vital to our well being, we tend to take our sense of balance for granted. Until we begin to lose it. It usually takes a bad fall to realize how important balance is.
We could not stand, never mind walking or running without balance.  Our posture is compromised when we start losing the sense of balance.  With out good sense of balance we could not see images in sharp detail as we move, could not navigate without visual landmarks or could not even think clearly.
Balance requires 3 systems to work together to counteract the force of gravity:
– eyes, (visual system)
– inner ear canals (the body’s dedicated gravity and motion sensing apparatus),
– proprioceptors (sensors and nerve endings) in our feet,
Balance is more complex than just how long we can stay on one leg.
I could go on forever about how these 3 systems work together and how mismatch of these systems impact vision, learning, memory and how loss of hearing is connected to loss  of balance  (will do if your feedback shows interest).
3 systems, 3 exercises to start regaining and improving your sense of balance. Today is about the feet.  Stay tuned for eye and inner ear exercises in next emails.

Before you do the exercises, test your balance.  We always need an assessment to see if the exercise worked or not, right? Test, do the exercise and retest.

Stand on one leg, time it, then stand on the other leg time it. Make sure that your lifted leg is not touching the standing leg.  Don’t cheat, this is just data collection. Make sure that you are safe. (You might need to stand close to a wall so you can catch yourself).

MEET YOUR FEET!

Stand tall, with feet hip width apart, and find the 4 corners of your feet. Clearly numbered on the picture below. Notice where you feel the “heaviest” and where you feel the “lightest”. Keeping all 4 corners of the feet in contact with the floor, press down hard on the number that felt the lightest and keep holding the pressure for 10 seconds. Repeat 2-3X.  Do it on both feet.  Most of us have different results on each foot.
Retest single leg balance.  Better? Great!  Not better?  Keep practicing!  Remember, even if you improved, it will need continuous practice to make a long lasting change.  We cannot change decades of habits in 10 seconds.